The Ossuary
What is The Ossuary?
In the tradition of our region’s founders, figures of notes in the history of La Sombra have their skeletons exhumed and mounted on the walls of The Ossuary, commonly called The Bone Church. It’s important to note that The Ossuary is more similar to a museum and no regular religious services are held in the building.
It’s notable that the displays of skeletons are not artistic as in other ‘bone churches’ found in France and Italy as well as other parts of the world. The skeletons are displayed in full.
More About The Ossuary
The Practice of Choosing and Mounting Skeletons
To be included in The Ossuary, figures need to have made an indelible mark on the community. This demarcation holds with it no moral or civil judgement, meaning an impact on the community could be positive or negative in nature. This neutral view of figures from the past falls in the ancient tradition of memorandum or temporal reverence. Both of these terms refer to the civic ideal of La Sombra that we are who we are based on those who came before and we must acknowledge the fullness of our past.
A person must be dead for 10 years before they become eligible to exhumation. Once a person is selected – which up to this point has always been unanimous – their body is exhumed.
The skeleton is then cast in the same way a dinosaur skeleton is cast.
The cast is kept in the underground of the Civics Building while their original skeleton is mounted on the wall of The Ossuary.
